Tag: Kingdom of God

The most-darling-three-year-old-in-the-Universe, (my oldest granddaughter) is R-E-A-L-L-Y into princess stuff. Like, it’s a struggle for her mom to get her to change out of one of her (many) princess outfits if they need to go public somewhere, like to the grocery store.

Of course, then she got a mermaid bathing suit, and it’s been rough getting her out of that one, as in this recent chat with her mom:

“Don’t ever make proclamations about how you’ll parent or what your child/ren will do. That’s how you end up in a suburban bank with a 3-year-old mermaid perched on your hip.”

Ah, parenting…

But, along with Pooh Bear, mermaids, and tea parties, the princess things still rank pretty high on her radar for now. And as with all things (grand)parenting, it give us great pleasure to follow those interests with her. What will develop next?Continue reading “Casting call: princesses and mermaids”

I get all kinds of requests for money, you know, you make one donation and the scent of blood is sensed for miles. Some of the requests are causes with which I would agree, some not so much. But even the ones I would tend to support, well, let’s face it, there’s only so much to go around.

Which really isn’t the point. The real issue is the fact that it’s not “my” money anyway. Sure, it’s in my name, my account with my beneficiaries and all that. It goes to pay my bills, my taxes, and my retirement (such as it is). It puts food on my table and gas in my car. It’s not that I haven’t worked hard for it all; sure I have. And yes, some of that hard work has taken a toll I’d care not to admit, but there it is.

Still, the truth is, it’s not mine.

Not any more. Because I actually belong to a larger government than any on this planet—the kingdom of God, (which is, I might add, far more just than the IRS…just saying.)

It’s an uncharacteristically warm day in winter, so I’ll need to go out and turn the compost. Now, that might not sound too exciting, unless you see it with a little vision (or a lot, depending on your perspective, I suppose…) My heavy-duty fork and I have an interesting relationship—I supply the muscle but it touches the biologicals. It’s work, but I’m hoping a good harvest this coming summer.

I’m gifted. At least, that’s what my folks were told back when I was in 5th grade. So they put me in different school for a couple of years, which was really nice of them, since it meant mom had to carpool a few of us “gifted” kids to and fro. (Never mind that fact that my older brother, who was not recognized as “gifted”, went on to be the Purdue engineer, celebrated in his field as international keynote and author, widely traveled, as well as musician/artist on the side. Yeah, don’t overestimate manmade “tests” for gifted-ness….just saying.)

Right, so here I am, gifted. Of course, a gift is something that is innately given, something for which the receiver has no claim to credit, nothing they can legitimately boast about, because it’s, well…a gift.

Which, clearly, can come in all forms, some of which are recognized and valued, some of which are undisclosed and certainly undervalued. And, just as obviously (at least, to me, maybe that’s part of my “gifted-ness”), what Continue reading “Not about me?”

Say “CHEESE”…(click)

May I have the honor of introducing you to the Creator of vibrant rainbows, redwood forests, and the duckbill platypus? He is not only amazingly creative, terrifyingly awesome, but also incredibly humorous. (And He likes to see you smile....honest.)